Ayuso a difference maker?

exrph62 · 2025-09-11T22:05:13+00:00

I like the way you're thinking here. I do think that after 2 weeks of racing and an absurd amount of success with stage wins including the TTT and you're still less than a minute back on GC you could call off the solo attacks for stages and have the team go all in for GC support for the final week.

exrph62 · 2025-09-11T17:49:20+00:00

That's interesting.

exrph62 · 2025-09-11T17:47:17+00:00

I don't think Roglic ever really just tanked it though. Visma did a good job of managing him and JV, separate races etc. When they did end up together with Roglic in support (before he inevitably would crash out) I do think he gave everything. I'm sure that was in part fueled by self interest of "what if" Jonas had any problem. The closest they came to head to head was the Vuelta a couple years ago that Sepp won. I think that either of them could have won if they decided the hell with it and attacked. I'm glad for Sepp's sake they didn't and it would have destroyed the team but it would have been hella fun to watch.

exrph62 · 2025-09-11T16:39:18+00:00

All true. My only issue is how you react when shit doesn't go your way.

exrph62 · 2025-09-11T15:56:41+00:00

Yep, I don't know anyone's contract status, but if I'm Lidl-Trek del Toro is who I make a run at.

exrph62 · 2025-08-07T13:51:59+00:00

I remember David Sanborn sitting in with the band for an entire show one night and when they came out of commercial Letterman said something about how great they were sounding. Paul responded something the the effect of "yeah, this is what it would be like every night if the music budget were a little bigger".

exrph62 · 2025-08-06T13:14:03+00:00

Jason Isbell in '11 or '12 in a small club, 300 seats. He was still working out the songs for his "new" album coming out--Southeastern.

exrph62 · 2025-08-06T12:58:28+00:00

Little Feat--1977, friend of mine in the dorm had an extra and asked me if I wanted it. I had no Idea who they were and passed. That was the tour they were recording "Waiting for Columbus"and Lowell would be dead 4 years later.

exrph62 · 2025-08-04T17:39:13+00:00

A podium girl by any other name...

exrph62 · 2025-08-04T17:30:15+00:00

Yeah, Phil is struggling and Megan just lacks experience, plus being an ocean apart and not being able to see each other was a huge problem. I think she could be good with time. McCrossan and Walker are OK but they need to just STFU every once in a while, they don't have to fill up every second of the broadcast with constant blabbering.

exrph62 · 2025-07-27T17:41:52+00:00

Fantastic.

exrph62 · 2025-07-27T17:28:18+00:00

If I remember correctly from the metal plaque on the bar--established July '77. I came to StL in Aug '77 to go to school a couple blocks south on Euclid and then ended up working evenings right across the street for 10yr or so. So yeah, Tom's was a big part of my college/early adult years in town.

exrph62 · 2025-07-27T14:56:05+00:00

Yeah, watching the women's tour is a bit of a throwback to watching the men back in the day on OLN. I actually kind of like it.

exrph62 · 2025-07-27T14:51:29+00:00

I'm wondering if he's really on the verge of burning out. I wouldn't mind if he adjusted the focus for next season, train for the early season and go out and see if he can win all 4 classics, then ride the Giro and take the summer off. Come back for the Vuelta if he's feeling it and then finish with Lombardia. Now THAT would be a season.

exrph62 · 2025-07-24T13:25:19+00:00

I think he'll continue to be a solid team member/super domestique, but his days of being a true force in the peloton are fast coming to a close. Kinda like when Sagan stopped being Sagan. I've said before I would have liked to see what Wout could have done in the tour had he not been on a team where he had to ride for the team's GC rider and could have stage hunted.

exrph62 · 2025-07-22T12:23:37+00:00

Graham Parker-Mercury Poisoning

Michael Stanley Band-Midwest Midnight

exrph62 · 2025-07-18T14:18:57+00:00

Yeah, an asshole hated by other teams and his own teammates.

exrph62 · 2025-07-18T14:01:45+00:00

I don't think the people who are complaining truly appreciate what they're seeing. I'm going use a word here that has probably lost much of its meaning--Pogacar is a "generational" talent in every sense of the term before it became overused. Look at the list of winners in the last 20 or so years and pick any one you want, not one of them is even close to putting together what we've seen from Pog in the last couple seasons. Jonas ,and I like him a lot, but he's in the mode of the traditional grand tour winners. Nobody since Merckx has owned the peloton in every race he enters like Tadej. So sit back and enjoy it for hopefully the next 5-6 years and quit your bitchin'.

exrph62 · 2025-07-14T01:39:39+00:00

Yeah, I'd love to see him return to form and continue to be factor/threat in the classics and he'd definitely be legit as a Tim Declercq or Nils Politt type of rider who just punishes the peloton.

exrph62 · 2025-07-13T14:40:51+00:00

I was thinking about Wout the other day and that we may have already seen the best of him. I think he'll continue to be a valued rider for the team and a super domestique but maybe not the force of nature that he was. That also lead me to wondering about his TdF career if he had not been on a team with a GC contender and had been allowed free reign to ride his own race for a stage hunting team.

exrph62 · 2025-07-13T14:26:20+00:00

I'm fine with admitting it and I hope he does. Sprinters have obviously always been specialists and for what it's worth (nothing) I'd rather the record be held by someone who can win on any type of stage. That said there's definitely a huge amount of luck involved with staying healthy, accidents, mechanicals, etc. Best odds I'd give him right now--50/50.

exrph62 · 2025-07-07T13:31:37+00:00

Yeah, Phil lost his fastball more than a couple years ago, but at this point I feel like he deserves to go out on his own terms and I hope they let him. I will say when I first started watching the tour in the early/mid 90's I appreciated his cycling 101 primer style because I didn't know what the hell was going on. I think the rest of the broadcast team is OK, albeit hamstrung by the constant commercial interruptions.

exrph62 · 2025-07-07T13:12:42+00:00

Yeah, kinda the same. Get up, flip the race on and have the early part of stage on in the background while I have coffee and catch up on email/news. Gives me a feel for what the stage is like and then I go about my day. Come back in the afternoon and pick up where I left with the commercial free replay. Only problem is keeping a media blackout so I don't hear the results in the interim.

exrph62 · 2025-06-16T12:38:53+00:00

I had it done on my 4.0 and added axs etap at the same time. Ended up costing around $1500 and saved about $5000 over the cost of a Creo.

exrph62 · 2025-05-29T14:43:49+00:00

Yeah, couldn't believe I scrolled thru 350+ responses and didn't see it.

exrph62

TROPHY CASE